Bird Of Paradise

In "Bird Of Paradise", a 170×119 cm work, Erin Bird deploys her "waterprinting" technique, where oil, Flashe vinyl paint, ink and water meet on the canvas. A large veil opens like a corolla or a plumage: golden yellow at the heart, deep red and burgundy at the edges, indigo at the base, within a pale pink halo. Black veins, fine as fibres, run across the surface and give it the tension of a spread wing. The white ground heightens the brilliance of the colours, saturated yet translucent. The form evokes the exotic flower it is named after as much as the bird it imitates. This painting invites the viewer to contemplate a solar apparition, between bloom and flight.